In vehicles having an engine idle temporal stop function, the engine of such a vehicle stops when a prescribed condition is satisfied. The above-mentioned prescribed condition may be, for example, a greater-than prescribed temperature of an engine cooling water, a braking of the vehicle, or the like.
Conventionally, when an abnormality or failure occurs in various in-vehicle components that are used for realizing the above-mentioned temporal stop function or in sensors and other devices for detecting the satisfaction of the above-mentioned prescribed condition, a technology to forbid a temporal stop of the engine is proposed, in a following patent document 1 (i.e., JP-A-2005-248796 and JP-A-2009-138647).
As mentioned above, when an abnormality or failure regarding a temporal stop function is caused in a mode that cancels a greenhouse gas reduction effect of the temporal stop function, the effect of such function to reduce the amount of emission of a greenhouse gas is reduced or cancelled (i.e., the reduction effect will not fully/preferably be achieved). Therefore, damage to the environment may result when a vehicle with such kind of abnormality is driven or operated for a long time. Thus, when an abnormality or failure regarding a temporal stop function is caused in a vehicle in a mode that cancels a greenhouse gas reduction effect, the driver of such a vehicle should be prompted to fix the vehicle as soon as possible.
Further, when a certain condition is satisfied, a vehicle having a generator performs a regenerative power generation, or a power regeneration, which is disclosed, for example, in a following patent document 2 (i.e., Japanese Patent JP-A-2001-169402). When such a power regeneration is performed for collecting an electric power and the collected power is used in the vehicle, the environmental load of such vehicle is reduced (i.e., reduces greenhouse gas emissions).
However, in some instances the regenerative power generation may be not performed even though the above-described certain condition is satisfied because of an abnormality or a device failure of some kind. In such a case, the expected effect of a power regeneration function, which is a reduction effect for reducing the emission of the greenhouse gas, may be reduced or not fully realized. Therefore, damage to the environment may result when a vehicle with such kind of abnormality is driven or operated for a long time. Thus, when such kind of abnormality is observed, a driver of the vehicle or other people involved should be quickly notified for a quick fix of the vehicle.